


A Tale of Two Cities

by LeastExpected_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-02-04
Updated: 2002-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26213854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeastExpected_Archivist/pseuds/LeastExpected_Archivist
Summary: By Helena Aeneano summary posted
Relationships: Gimli (Son of Glóin)/Legolas Greenleaf
Kudos: 1





	A Tale of Two Cities

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Amy Fortuna, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Least Expected](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Least_Expected), which has been offline since 2002. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Least Expected collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/leastexpected/profile).
> 
> Disclaimer: The title and the first line belong to Dickens the characters and places are the property of the estate of JRR Tolkien also I have taken some lines straight from the book, I am making no money out of this so you can't sue nah nah ne nah nah!  
> Story Notes: For my purposes I have assumed a few things post LoTR, please forgive mistakes. Also, I write in comments as I go not too many, if you dislike this, you know where the delete key is, I was ordered to write, I wrote, but be warned, I am not good. No beta reader was used because I couldn't find anyone to do it for me. On reflection the only relevance of the title to the story is the first line. oops!

A Tale of Two 'Cities'

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Which although an oxymoron and probably first written by someone being paid per word, which I am not, as I am not paid... was in this instance quite true. For there were many excellent things about this day, and one big bad one which quite cancelled out the others. _do I sound like a hobbit?_

It was a warm summers day _probably_ and the sun shone down on the forest of Mirkwood like, well like a large hot ball of fire shining down upon a leafy forest, an the day was perfect *as perfect as weather can be that is*.

Mirkwood looks like a sea of green <well less sea, more green> and on the edge of this sea there are just visible two men, no, not men, as the camera goes closer we see that they are not men, rather an elf and a dwarf. In the soft light of early morning they stand embracing, as though to part. And that assumption is quite true, they are soon to part. This is for them the end of a long journey together that began many months <years? I never counted> ago in the house of Elrond Half-elven.

Then, at Rivendell, they had met, two strangers from races long divided by hate and together they had set off on a long quest together with four of Halflings, and three men (well two men and one Istari). Many things had happened to those nine, who journey across the whole of middle Earth in their quest to destroy the one ring of Sauron, they had faced up to many evils and had become fast friends as those who travel and fight together often become.

It had been on the night after the final battle had been one that elf and dwarf had finally come to realise that they shared more than friendship. On that night they ceased to be like brothers and became lovers. They had remained together in the citadel of Minas Tirith for the celebrations but at last they were forced to set out for home. For a long while they had journeyed together, North towards Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains, that journey together was truly the best of times for them, for it was time that they spent together uninterrupted by war or quest or by those who might frown upon their relationship.

"And Gimli was named elf-friend because of the great love that had grown between him and Legolas, son of king Tharanduil."

Now however after what now seemed to be such a fleeting time together they were to part. Legolas for his home among the trees and Gimli for his under the mountains. They each knew that their peoples could not accept them being together, not that they were both male but that one was an elf and the other a dwarf, and at the same time they knew that neither could truly be happy in the home of the other for one was born to the woods and the other to the mountains, and that of necessity they must part. But this parting was a sad one, for they each longed to remain with the other. And for them this was the worst of times.

For a long while the lovers remained apart, forced to be so by the way each of them lived. Then after some time had passed Gimli returned to Minas Tirith to build anew the gates of the city and to marvel at the caves deep with Helm's Deep <and I forget their name> and Legolas left Mirkwood for Ithilian where by the grace of Aragorn king of Gondor he and some others would live.

Now that both Legolas and Gimli were living so near to his realm Aragorn often invited them to join him for a week or a month, and when he saw that when they were together they were most happy he would always invite them to Minas Tirith together so that they might be happy. He and his queen were always most happy when their friends were also happy.

Yet time passed and no mortal lives forever and the time of the king of Gondor though long could be infinite and the time came when he passed away, and his queen, stricken with grief went to the place where she had once lived and there she pined away and died.

Legolas, with the death of his friend felt even more keenly the pull of the sea, and went to tell to his love that soon he too must leave this world.

But when he told this to Gimli and bid him farewell Gimli was distraught and begged never to be parted from him so Legolas took up the one remaining palantiri and spoke with it to Galadriel and begged of her that she might ask those higher than her to grant to Gimli the fate of the elves, and since Gimli had once said that she was the most beautiful among women and he had been instrumental in the war of the ring, she and Gandalf of the Istari pleaded with those above them. And they seeing the love that was between Gimli and Legolas granted to him this boon as a gift in return for his work during the war of the ring.

"Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien and sailed down the Anduin and so over the sea; and with him went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed an end was come in Middle-Earth to the fellowship of the Ring.

More can not be said of this matter." <at least not anything I can write about, because this is supposed to be G rated>

**Author's Note:**

> Note: well I started out trying to sound like Pratchett and then I just gave up and quoted Tolkien, I hope it's OK, but then it's better than the nothing that's been happening lately.


End file.
